Snapshot
by Sethoz
Summary: John was flying and in those few seconds he found he had a lifetime to think over everything he had done during his life to date...-Post Movie- -Fin-


**Disclaimer: **Just a short one shot from me. Written for the "Âme Soeur" LiveJournal Challenge; Traveling. Written in 47 minutes. I don't own X-Men, Brotherhood, Pyro or anything else used in this story. I hope you all enjoy, this is my first X-Men Fanfic for a while! 

No romance in this at all, besides one very, very slight hint of one-sided John/Rogue. 

Please, please read then review.

**~Snapshot~**

John was flying. 

Time slowed as he feet left the ground, as he was knocked backwards, his whole body moving in a graceful arc, his hand still holding tightly onto his lighter, the flame he was controlling billowing out after him; like the tail feathers of a phoenix. As he flew, his body twisted round so he wouldn't hit his back as he landed. In those few moments as he moved from one side of the grassy clearing to the other, St. John Allardyce found he had a lifetime to think over everything he had done during his life to date. It wasn't as if his life was flashing in front of his eyes, it was as if he had achieved a deep clarity, an epiphany of sorts in those precious little seconds of total freedom.

He saw in his minds eye the events which had lead up to his unexpected flight. Two members of the Brotherhood had been spying on a training base belonging to the military. There were lots of rumors in the underground network of mutants that this military base was in actual fact being used to experiment on mutants. The rumors were nothing more than little whispers and hints with nothing concrete, so Mystique and Pyro had gone to scout it out - the other members of the Brotherhood busy with other missions, even Magneto himself was busy, involved in trying to track down a possible new member of the Brotherhood. 

Pyro didn't know why it was so important that Magneto was the one who talked with the girl, who went by the name of the Scarlet Witch, only that Magneto had the best chance of convincing the girl to put her mutant gifts to good use with them and not with people like Professor Xavier and his 'X-Men'. They really seemed to believe that one day, mutants and human would be able to live together in peace, without a war. 

Pyro just believed that war was inevitable, as unavoidable as autumn turning into winter and that to fight against it would be like trying to stop the sun from setting.

So Pyro and Mystique set out together, the blue skinned mutant silent during the whole journey. The two mutants had reached a clearing, the buildings they were heading for a few hundred meters away when they found themselves facing three other mutants; Storm, Nightcrawler and Iceman otherwise known as Bobby Drake... Pyro's best friend. Pyro smirked and started to finger his lighter, letting his thumb run along the top, though he didn't go as far as actually flicking it open. No point in fighting until both Brotherhood mutants were ready.

The three X-Men stared at the other two, their mouth's slightly open. Bobby looked slightly ridiculous, his face resembling that of a goldfish - to Pyro at least.

"What are you two doing here?" Storm finally asked. Pyro rolled his eyes and stuck his free hand in the pocket of his ripped jeans. Mystique smiled, her yellow eyes flashing, before transforming into an exact duplicate of Storm. Pyro couldn't stop the slight shudder that ran through him as she did so - it didn't matter how many times he saw her do that, it always freaked him out. 

"What are you three doing here?" Mystique/Storm asked, sounding just like the white weather witch. 

"Look, whatever you're doing here, just leave, we don't want to fight you." The real Storm said. Mystique/Storm laughed slightly.

"How noble." She snarled. "What a pity the two of us do not share that sentiment." She jumped forward, cannoning into Storm and sending both women flying. They rolled forward, making it impossible for Nightcrawler to work out which Storm was the real one. Pyro and Bobby faced each other, a mocking smile curling on Pyro's lips.

The fire using mutant felt the flame well up inside of him, the fire burning as he stared at his ex-best friend and now his enemy. The fire wanted to fight, to play, and even though Pyro hated to admit it, the fire was in control of him. It was the flame that moved him forward, the everlasting spark in his heart that influenced what he did. It was his fiery gifts that turned him into such a hot head and the same fire that choose Magneto over Xavier. It was the same burning desire that made him love what he couldn't have, made him lust and long for the touch of an untouchable - Rogue. 

With a cross between a shout and a roar, Pyro let the fire erupt from his lighter, the sheer energy forcing his body backwards, the weight of his body leaving a trial in the dirt, his footprints scrapping together to form a rough line. The heat of the fire forced Bobby to fling his hand up to cover his eyes, trying to shield them against the fire.

Pyro laughed, a loud, reckless laugh, letting the fire take him over, until there was nothing in his mind but the need to feed the beautiful colors of the flames and to make them grow. He spun on his heel, using his hands to make little fountains of fire, even as Bobby froze his flames, the weak sun light that was filtering through the trees, reflecting off the ice sculptures. 

A heavy silence had fallen over the clearing and the two teenage boys were unable to take their eyes off each other, both waiting for the other to make a move, both panting slightly over the effort they had used.

"Still fighting the good fight, eh Icy." Pyro taunted, acting as if the sight of his best friend glaring at him with such _hate _didn't affect him at all.

"Someone has to stop you." Bobby spat out. Pyro froze, just for an instance, the words cutting in to him. Then he flicked his hands open, the fire rushing out of them and lapping towards Bobby. At the same time Nightcrawler appeared next to Pyro pushing him with such force that he was knocked off his feet.

Pyro missed his friends, he realized in the seconds of freedom. He missed Bobby and Rogue. He missed Jubilee. Heck, he even missed Professor Xavier's little 'talks' about controlling his powers better and stopping himself from using them at every possible chance he got. But he couldn't go back, you could never go back, you just had to keep going forward, to see what lay at the end of your own road.

The few seconds slipped past and Pyro knew his short flight - which had taken an entity in his mind - was over, his brief snapshot of his life vanishing as if it was never there. The colours of the trees and ground all blurred together as sound and time came rushing back to him, pulling his mind back into the here and now. As he headed back to the ground, he knew he had made the wrong choice with joining Magneto, but right now, even though he was about to get his face smashed in by the ground before having to fight his old time friend, the Pyro manic found he didn't care.

John was flying.

**~The End~**

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it, please leave a review!

**~Sethoz **


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